April showers are certainly visiting us in May – this morning I woke up at 6 am because it was raining so hard on our dormer windows. Nonetheless the herbs are flourishing in our raised kitchen bed and the lovage is shooting up! I love, love, love lovage but in this garden for some reason it goes slightly ‘off’ later in the summer – a sort of disease (?) makes it practically disappear by August, I don’t remember my mother’s lovage doing that. So, only two things for it – eat as much as possible while it is still young and vigorous and pick and freeze the leaves so that there’s always some to hand for putting in the water when boiling potatoes.

It is not often you find recipe suggestions for lovage so I was thrilled when I spotted  this recipe for lovage and pork from krydderuglen’s blog. and made it tonight. Apparently it is one of her sons’ favourite dishes and it certainly went down a treat with everyone in my family. My only addition would to specify that you might want to use half and half double-cream and milk, otherwise the sauce does get very thick (but yummy!!). I served this with potatos and a salad.

Lovage and pork

Serves 4

1 pork tenderloin cut into medallions
200 ml lovage or more, chopped
ground chilli, not too much
salt
cream

Sprinkle the meat with lovage and chilli and let steep for 10-15 minutes.  Fry until golden, season with salt and add cream. Let the cream reduce for 3-5 minutes, until bubbling.